Chapter 38 - Page 2

directly towards these mountains. Having quenched their burning

thirst, and refreshed themselves and their weary horses for a

time, they kept along this stream, which gradually increased in

size, being fed by numerous brooks. After approaching the

mountains, it took a sweep toward the southwest, and the

travellers still kept along it, trapping beaver as they went, on

the flesh of which they subsisted for the present, husbanding

their dried meat for future necessities.

The stream on which they had thus fallen is called by some, Mary

River, but is more generally known as Ogden's River, from Mr.

Peter Ogden, an enterprising and intrepid leader of the Hudson's

Bay Company, who first explored it. The wild and half-desert

region through which the travellers were passing, is wandered

over by hordes of Shoshokoes, or Root Diggers, the forlorn branch

of the Snake tribe. They are a shy people, prone to keep aloof

from the stranger. The travellers frequently met with their

trails, and saw the smoke of their fires rising in various parts

of the vast landscape, so that they knew there were great numbers

in the neighborhood, but scarcely ever were any of them to be met

with.

After a time, they began to have vexatious proofs that, if the

Shoshokoes were quiet by day, they were busy at night. The camp

was dogged by these eavesdroppers; scarce a morning, but various

articles were missing, yet nothing could be seen of the

marauders. What particularly exasperated the hunters, was to have

their traps stolen from the streams. One morning, a trapper of a

violent and savage character, discovering that his traps had been

carried off in the night, took a horrid oath to kill the first

Indian he should meet, innocent or guilty. As he was returning

with his comrades to camp, he beheld two unfortunate Diggers,

seated on the river bank, fishing. Advancing upon them, he

levelled his rifle, shot one upon the spot, and flung his

bleeding body into the stream. The other Indian fled and was

suffered to escape. Such is the indifference with which acts of

violence are regarded in the wilderness, and such the immunity an

armed ruffian enjoys beyond the barriers of the laws, that the

only punishment this desperado met with, was a rebuke from the

leader of the party. The trappers now left the scene of this

infamous tragedy, and kept on westward, down the course of the

river, which wound along with a range of mountains on the right

hand, and a sandy, but somewhat fertile plain, on the left. As

they proceeded, they beheld columns of smoke rising,